Baseball: UConn, Hartford Eliminated

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Sacred Heart plays Sunday for title

Hunter Allen and Luke Lowery both went 2-for-4 and closer Joe Ingle worked out of two bases-loaded situations to lead East Carolina to a 4-2 victory over UConn on Saturday that eliminated the Huskies from the AAC baseball tournament in Clearwater, Fla.

The Pirates (39-20) advanced to Sunday's championship game against Houston, a 17-3 winner over Memphis. The Huskies (35-25) outhit East Carolina 10-6 but left 13 runners.

Ingle inherited a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the eighth and escaped unscathed and retired the first two he faced in the ninth before UConn scored on a walk to Vinny Siena, who went to second on indifference, and Bobby Melley's RBI single. A hit batter and a walk loaded the bases, but Ingle got Max McDowell to fly to left and end the game.

East Carolina scored two in the first after William Montgomerie walked the first three batters of the game and led 3-1 in the eighth before a 2-hour, 37-minute rain delay. After the delay, Lowery singled to left; Reid Love, who was on second, stopped at third but was able to score after the throw from the outfield sailed wide.

Jacob Wolfe pitched seven innings for the win. Blake Davey had two doubles and an RBI for UConn. Sam Nepiarsky relieved in the first and allowed one run and three hits in 6 1/3 innings for the Huskies, who had stayed alive Friday night with five in the eighth to beat Tulane, 7-6.

UMBC 10, Hartford 2: Vince Corbi had a two-run single in UMBC's five-run second, and the Retrievers (34-19) scored seven unearned runs in the first two innings in eliminating Hartford (23-31) from the America East Tournament in Lowell, Mass.

Kevin Lachance was 3-for-5, Jake Barnes drove in three runs and Cory Callahan allowed five hits in seven inngs for UMBC.and Cory Callahan allowed five hits in seven innings for UMBC, which then lost 16-11 to Stony Brook, which claimed the title.

Bryant 5, Sacred Heart 2: Bryant scored four in the top of the ninth and James Davitt got the final two outs after Sacred Heart scored two in the bottom half in the NEC championship round at Dodd Stadium in Norwich.

The teams will play a winner-take all game Sunday at noon with an NCAA Tournament berth on the line.

Trevor Lacosse pitched 8 1/3 innings for the win and Matt Albanese (East Haddan, Xavier) had a double and rally-starting single for Bryant (29-24).

Starter Jesus Medina allowed one run and three hits in seven innings for Sacred Heart (22-30-1). PJ DeFilippo was 2-for-4 with an RBI.